Dawood's Mentor

Complimenting the unputdownable, Dongri to Dubai, the book sketches the life of the don who introduced white collar smuggling for the 1st time and brought character and a sense of value in a field where betrayal and treachery were the order of the day. The wrestler by his upbringing, a warrior at his heart, a brain graduated in economics, Khalid Khan aka Khalid Pehelwan had been the most dependable ally of Kaskar brothers in their most formative days. Upsetting a stalwart wrestler at a challenge, the young Khalid Khan was picked up by Bashu Dada as his closest bodyguard turned partner in the silver smuggling business that the later quickly turned to gold literally. But maybe fate had stored a different future for this duo. So, the humbler Khalid, was soon deserted by his mentor but was quickly to be united to his protege, Dawood, forging a long lasting friendship that saw a new era of underworld activity.

The book really is complimentary to the rise of the Mumbai mafia as narrated by the author in his other books and sketches a more detailed narrative of Sabir-Dawood-Khalid coalition that is interspersed with tragedy and thrilling sequences. Writing in his characteristic gripping style with a touch of subtle humour that blends well amid some tensed settings, the acknowledgment could be no less better than the way Husaain Zaidi expresses his gratitude to his mentors and mentee in his journey of investigative journalism.

Dangerous Minds

Brijesh Singh, elite IPS officer and IGP, Cyber, Maharashtra and S Hussain Zaidi, the fearless crime reporter join forces to delve into the intricate terror web spewed by the likes of the apparently humble Saquib Nachan convicted in bomb blasts, the engineering graduate Mehdi Biswas who turned the social media in favour of ISIS propaganda, the stamp paper scamstar Abdul Telgi, the doctor-to-be-turned-bomb maker Jalees Ansari, the terror couple Hanif Sayed with his wife Fahmida Ansari who made terror a seemingly ordinary event and many more like them. The events are the result of intense research and investigation yet the pace of the narratives is easy but thrilling. The anecdotes reveal several spine chilling truth and the fundamentals of the terror outfits and their members. The stories tell the evolution of the terror force from the older hardcore terrorists to the electronic experts specializing in spreading terror over the internet to those waging terror wars in various parts of the world. It does not stop there but also highlights how the security forces across the country combat these forces by methods that not only requires understanding of the criminal psychology but sometimes requires skillful handling of delicate situations where a single false move can make the case go awry. The fascinating storytelling of the authors mixes the thrill of fictions with the hard truth in such a way that never for once the reader will feel bored. The book is categorized in chapters each of which details a particular person or organization. The investigators have also maintained a list of references indicating the source of the compilations. But the best thing of the book is that, contrast to the opinionated reports that makes the clutter in the media nowadays, the authors present facts leaving opinions to be drawn by the readers. A must read compilation of articles it brings to fore the truth in its dangerous avatar.

My Name is Abu Salem

After Dongri to Dubai and Byculla to Bangkok, the next is the revelation of the life and crimes of Abu Salem that is equally chilling like the others. Based on numerous police dossiers, files, interviews and letters, the events are detailed in their required perspective to highlight the various incidents that outlined the career of the don. Keeping Bollywood at its toes, Salem not only made a business out of it but also made a fortune as well. Salem seems to be the only don who had written an autobiography in jail and that too with the help of two educated convicts and yearns to make a movie script out of it. Starting his career in India, he travelled to Dubai, US and Portugal, among other places evading the authorities under various aliases carving a mobile empire around the globe. The book sketches the character in his true colour and completes the trilogy of the Mumbai mafia.

Headley and I

The book had been a revelation to me about one of operatives behind the Mumbai mayhem of 2008. The key figure behind the plot who served as the intelligence gatherer, David Headley, had been described by many as being not only spy for only one agency, rather being an agent with multiple handlers from multiple agencies. He not only sketched the attack to its gruesome fate but when the time came he even offered sincere account to the investigators. This had been the underlying character of Daood Gillani who proved to be the dangerous spy ever recorded in years to come. Not only did he coax his way thru all the obstacles with apparent ease, thanks somewhat to the lax security of the countries he frequened, but he also played with the emotions of many. One of these was Rahul Bhatt, the coauthor of the book, who, along with his gym instructor Vilas, proved to be the front for Headley's espionage activities. Written in the first person, mainly from the perspectives of both Headley and Bhatt, it reveals how cautiously the intelligence was gathered with clever deceptions and coded transcripts. It is a tail of betrayal and horror penned effortlessly by Zaidi and forewarded by Mahesh Bhatt that brings true emotions in the open and makes us aware of the dormant risk that engulfs the common people everyday. International politics also have been highlighted a bit that seemed to mould certain events of which ultimately the common people becomes sufferer. The author has given a glimpse of the true story behind the horrific strike against humanity that paralyzed a city temporarily while the world watched helplessly.

Byculla to Bangkok

Sequel to Dongri to Dubai, the book traces the evolution of the Maharashtrian mafia and is even more fast paced than the predecessor. The narrative style is more of a collage of anecdotes and thus chronologically overlapping in parts. But the central theme is as chilling as ever. The socio-political aspect has been more critically analysed which makes it more haunting. Taking its birth from the socio-economic condition that allowed exploitation of the Maharastrian youth, the lust of the few made the evil even more dreaded. Murders were committed at daylight, gangs were formed and broken, smuggling networks became bafflingly intricate, police became mere spectators. In this situation were ushered in the encounter specialists, heroes who quickly turned the tables. But the ruthlessness of evil seemed to grow only. Some turned to politics while other fled to foreign lands. A state of confusion made apprentices to turn against their mentors as an age of treachery prevailed. Revenges were the order of the day and suddenly it seemed that the underworld is split in two. But this was only the broader divide. Internal to the split world, the zone was again divided into sects that took turns to rise and fall. Zaidi recounts the evolution of the mob where the battle for supremacy is defined in blood and gore.

Black Friday the true story of the Bombay bomb blasts

The anecdotes are a bit dry compared to Dongri to Dubai and more like reporting but the chilling facts when compiled gives us a really scary picture of the ace smugglers who orchestrated the 1993 serial blasts in Bombay. Zaidi once more portrays the masterminds of the plot and how the police force and CBI reponded after. However the poignant fact remains that thousands of innocencts suffered the communal wrath though in no way were they linked to any of the sides. The attacks and retaliations were swift but was so smeared with malice that it took decades to cool down. But the riddle of the century remains that whether real culprits ever got punishment that was due to them. I personally felt that the surprise bollywood connection shifted the attention to a lesser direction. The later blasts in Bombay once again threatened the people. The recent IM connection to serial blasts in Patna seems to reflect the same modus operandi. So the country must think for a solution to fight these crimes that are serious threats to the nation and the people who believe in the land.

Mafia Queens of Mumbai Stories of Women from the Ganglands

As I was reading through the anecdotes of the queens of the underworld, the first thing that struck me was these were the missing pieces of the puzzles that were left incomplete in the Zaidi's narrative of the male dons of Mumbai. Infact the narrative was compact and even more fast paced as compiled by Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges. The murky lands of the underworld, traversed prominently by the masculine hand had always been guided by the feminine shadow, at least in several cases, as has been documented here. With chill running down the spine, the readers may find truth a bit more harsh and a bit more scaring than it appears. Be it the story of love and lust, crime and revenge, manipulations and politics - the ladies were in no way less scheming than the others. Plotting crimes of the deadliest kind they played their part whenever the men found the heat rising. Starting from housewives to abandoned elopers, the aspirations to rise high in crime or the desperation catapulted them in their path to the evil corners of society. Some became dangerous, some generous while for some the fate could not have been worse. But it all created a new facet of the crime world - that portrayed by shrewd ladies which challenged the security of many.

Dongri to Dubai Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

A sensational insight into the underworld that evolved in Bombay and gradually raced to the international arena as been put in words by S. Hussain Zaidi, a veteran in investigative journalism in the Mumbai media. Starting with excerpt of the thrilling telephonic interview of Dawood, the book is filled with more startling revelations of the Mumbai underworld interspersing politics and entertainment. In this extensive compilation, not always followed chronologically, the chapters detail out the background of the gangs leading to the formation of the infamous D company. Not only this but the Bombay police heroics and some courageous journalism, in the midst of the maximum heat, are also being portrayed. The smuggling business etched on a path of unavoidable bloodshed, leading to terrorism at large, intertwined with international affairs has been clearly portrayed in this serious yet fast paced narrative. Augmented by several snaps of the crime lords and assassins the narrative has been made even more gripping. Personally my particular observation was the peculiar resemblance of the life in crime as detailed in this book to that depicted in Mario Puzo’s fictional Sicilian mafia novels and Francis Ford Coppola’s rendering of the Godfather saga made decades earlier, which seem to emphasize the point that beneath the glory and glamour of the underworld, their lives are always predictable. Some very clear parallel can be drawn as in Khalid Pehelwan’s inhuman revenge that can be compared with Luca Brasis’s torturous killings of assassins deployed to kill Vito Corleone. Another was the attempt at Dawood’s life with the climax of Copolla’s Godfather III.